How do I discern righteous guilt from false guilt?

Question

I believe the Holy Spirit can make you feel guilty for an actual sin while the enemies of God can make you feel guilty for an alleged sin that isn't one or keep you feel guilty for a sin you repented from. What are ways to discern if a feeling of guilt is from the Holy Spirit or from the enemy? Do any Catholic or Orthodox saints or Pentecostals provide insight on how to discern?

Answer 1

I've once heard a very nice sermon on this (can't remember which Church it was, but I believe Catholic), in a comparison with Judas and Peter. Both Judas and Peter betray Christ (Luke 22). Further more, both are sorry! Remember, Judas returns the money (Matthew 27).

But Judas' sorrow, is an earthly one, that leaves us in a state of guilt, shame and blame. The worldly sorrow brings despair and leaves us in despair. However, it was not so with Peter, Peter also in a sort of earthly sorrow, doesn't believe the Lord can forgive him, even after he sees him resurrected! But Peter accepts forgiveness, he embraces Jesus' offering of a new, healed life, in turning away from sin and towards God, by the grace of God!

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs. John 21:15 ”

Earthly sorrow brings despair and leaves us there, in our sins, with no hope. Godly sorrow accepts the resurrected Christ into our lives, with the faith and confidence of us trying to follow Christ again! Despair without hope, is the work of the anti-Christ. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

Answer 2

I am surprised no one has brought up 2 Corinthians 7:9-11; I believe Paul gives you the answer there.

9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. (NASB)

Godly sorrow, or to use your term, righteous guilt, produces zealous repentance. It goes without saying that to repent you have to have sinned. If you haven't sinned, there's no need of guilt or repentance.

The sorrow of the world, or to use your term, false guilt, produces death. Instead of indignation, it promotes resignation; instead of fear, arrogance, instead of longing for the Lord, repulsion at His presence, instead of zeal, lethargy, instead of punishment of wrong, acceptance of evil.

Answer 3

Good question. I think one common error we make as new Christians is assuming that discerning good from evil is as simple as waiting for a feeling of conviction from the Spirit. The Bible does not say this - in Scripture, the Spirit gives us a new heart with new desires, but learning to discern good from evil takes time. Our feelings can mislead us - consider my comments on conscience below.

• Guilt that is from the enemy focuser your attention on yourself rather than Christ - how messed up you are and that you will never change.

• Godly sorrow focuses our attention on Christ and His atoning work on the cross and His power to transform us into a new creation. We trust that He will cleanse us of all sin (1 John 1:9) and give us strength by His Spirit to overcome. It affirms that we are dearly loved in Christ and that His love compels us to pursue righteousness in full confidence that if we persevere we will overcome in time, for we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Maturity Takes Time

The Bible is clear that in order to discern good from evil we must be mature in our faith and that this type of maturity takes time to develop. Our hearts can deceive us - our emotions are unstable. We must learn over years of walking with Christ and studying His Word to discern good from evil - to compare our desires against God's Word and to know whether they are for good or ill. I do not think this type of wisdom is cheap or fast - it requires time and discipline to renew our minds and grow in maturity.

Romans 12:2 - Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Hebrews 5:14 - But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Conscience

Our conscience can be wrong - it can be misinformed. It can cause us to feel guilty when we have done nothing wrong and it can cause us to feel innocent when we are guilty of sin. Consider this passage from 1 John - our heart’s can condemn us - make us feel guilty and condemned - even when we should not feel that way.

I John 3:19-22 - This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts , and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.

Likewise, our conscience can be seared so that we no longer feel guilty when we do evil things.

I Timothy 4:2 - Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

I think the following article does a good job discussing the conscience. Our conscience must be informed by God's Word and is not always correct. Mature Christians are those whose conscience and mind have learned through constant discipline and submission to God's Spirit to discern good from evil. Our conscience may never be perfect this side of Heaven, which is why we need to know God's Word and seek godly council.

Hebrews 5:14 - But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-is-conscience/

Answer 4

[I feel that this is slightly hastily written, but it looks basically sound right now…]

This answer probably violates some rules about what is acceptable as an answer on this site, but. . .

The Bible tells us that we have the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (There are arguments that try to say that this is not. . . what it says, but I consider them all to be {obviously bad arguments unless one has a barrow to push}.)

The answer, then, is that you do not need anything beyond careful consideration to work out right and wrong. Conversely, “the heart is corrupt and desperately wicked” [paraphrasing some different verses], so it is helpful to heed what the Bible says about moral questions. (Of course, in real life there are ethical dilemmas and situations in which the wrong is already a past event, and so on. . . but I would not expect the Bible to be able to resolve such questions. Discuss them with an academic type.)

From the point of view of Christianity itself. . . two core difficulties for fallen human beings are:

• acknowledging one’s guilt and
• accepting that one is perfectly forgiven.